Openpilot – Operating system for robotics

I have a Dodge Ram. Last night I had a 400km drive to do after a very long day. I wasn&#x27;t exhausted, but I certainly felt like I did not want to drive an extended period of time.<p>I have a Comma 3x in the truck and felt way more confident, alert and comfortable for the entire drive. OpenPilot&#x2F;Sunnypilot&#x2F;Frogpilot are not FSD, but they are hands off driving assistance. The 2020 Ram performs incredibly well. The latest driving models are very smooth as well, no ping-ponging and they handle passing and traffic extremely well.<p>A legacy car maker would be smart to acquire Comma if its for sale. They would be extremely close to a viable assisted driving capability with it.

I can’t wrap my head around the fact that 275 car models include all the actuators needed for self driving driving and there’s some kind of port third party software can hook into.

I am not surprised that comma is still around.<p>Minimal VC funding, less than 100 employees, not outrageously increasing headcount each month, profitable and sells a product with good margins.<p>Not many startups do this anymore, they are just chasing funding every 3 months using OpenAI’s API, comma has their own models before the AI hype.

I chose the Hyundai Ioniq 5 as my current car specifically because it’s compatible with OpenPilot. It’s been a total game-changer for my driving experience. Just like their tagline says, “make driving chill,” and for me, it truly delivers on that promise.

There&#x27;s an element of using these systems that people don&#x27;t usually discuss. One of the forks, Sunnypilot, enables a mode where you control the pedals but don&#x27;t have to do the steering. What I&#x27;ve found is you do pay attention in this mode, and since you&#x27;re controlling the brakes you can easily avoid most issues that you would get with self driving. But, not having to have your hands on the steering wheel makes the experience a lot more pleasant. Also, with traditional lane keeping systems, the so-called &quot;longitudinal&quot; control (accelerator and brakes) is where in my experience the system makes the most mistakes.<p>I think this mode is something car manufacturers should enable in general. I actually suspect it&#x27;s significantly safer than completely hands- and feet-free driving modes, and you get most of the benefit of lane-keeping assist.

This is super cool, but:<p>1. Is this street legal? If so, how?<p>2. They discuss functional safety, and lots of testing, which is great. But I’d want to see some data on the test results — maybe this exists and I just didn’t see it?<p>3. It makes me uncomfortable that the anecdotal videos are easily findable, but bulk data&#x2F;statistics are not. Anecdotes can easily be cherry picked. I get that they’re necessary for marketing, but I don’t feel they’re sufficient given the product’s purpose

If I was in law enforcement, I’d be rubbing my hands in glee to get ahold of that saved video.

Been following Openpilot for awhile, would totally use it if I had a supported car. Though these days most cars come with &#x27;pretty good&#x27; ADAS, even &#x27;hands free&#x27; in some situations, so I wonder how much it&#x27;s &quot;worth it&quot; to DIY compared to factory default.

I wonder why the website doesn&#x27;t say &quot;operating system&quot; but instead calls it an &quot;advanced driver assistance system&quot;

for cars that aren&#x27;t compatible, can you install additional hardware to make them compatible?

for a second, I though this was the ROS alternative I&#x27;ve been forever waiting for smh

Without taking away anything from the substance or achievement of this release, I find phrases like <i>&quot;openpilot is an operating system for robotics.&quot;</i> always quite fishy.<p>No, it&#x27;s not an OS for robotics. You can&#x27;t do actual robotics stuff with it, like drive actuators to control limbs or grippers, do motion control or SLAM or perception or any of the usual robotics stack.<p>Their website correctly says <i>openpilot is an open source advanced driver assistance system that works on 275+ car models of Toyota, Hyundai, Honda, and many other brands.</i> Should&#x27;ve stuck to that.<p>Thinking about it some more, it&#x27;s probably just another engagement baiting strategy to get attention and I&#x27;m their gullible puppet. Well played.

This seems to be a mix of C++ and Python, including a script called &quot;realtime.py&quot; (oxymoron?). So am I now exposed to other people using Python on the roads to operate heavy machinery?

I’m surprised to see so many people disliking Open Pilot on HackerNews. I have one of these, and it’s a total game changer on long trips. I drove from Texas to California using my Comma 3 and I didn’t have to overtake it a single time on the interstate.<p>Sure you have to actively be alert your entire drive, but it’s still significantly better than actually doing the work of driving.

I always wondered who would pay $1000 for a device you have to babysit, just so that you can become an unpaid beta tester and data drone for SV millionaires. I guess all you have to do is tell people they&#x27;re a part of a revolution?